Posts Tagged ‘Soccer Players’

Soccer is a game about field position and possession and being able to defend effectively is a key element for each of these factors. There are four key elements that I have found to teaching young soccer players to defend effectively. Footwork is a key factor in getting young soccer players to defend effectively. Together with knowing when to commit to a tackle and when to hold position I find these are the two vitals elements to having a strong defence. These factors, I combine with knowing where the danger zones are on the field, and communicating with each other in order to create an impenetrable defence. I do not promote playing boring soccer with lots of players behind the ball, but if you can defend effectively then your team will be able to play the ball further up the field, thus creating more attacking opportunities.

Footwork is a key element in teaching young soccer players to defend effectively. There are two things that I focus on with my young soccer players in relation to their footwork. The first of these is to never get caught with their feet square. They should always defend with one foot in front of the other, and with one shoulder in front of the other. They must also never be caught flat footed. This means that they should always be on their toes in a defensive situation. This allows them to react much more quickly to what the attacking player does in front of them. It is also vital that they do not get caught with both feet off the ground at the same time, as this makes it almost impossible for them to change direction or react quickly.

Players must learn when to commit to a tackle and when to hold their position and wait for an opportunity. Players must only commit to a tackle when the odds are in their favour of winning the ball. This usually means that they are closer to the ball than what the attacker is. Until this happens they should jockey for position and maintain a distance of about 1 meter between themselves and the attacker. This will give them enough reaction time to stay with the attacking player. Players must watch the ball at all times. This will lessen the ability of an attacker to fake them into committing to a tackle at the wrong time. The ball is the critical element, not the feet, hips or shoulders of the attacking players. Teach your defenders to watch the ball at all times. I also encourage players to stay on their feet when defending as much as possible. There is a time and place for a slide tackle, but a player that is off their feet cannot react as quickly as a player who is on their feet.

Teach your players where the danger zones are on the field. Defenders must position themselves on the field to push the attack towards the sidelines and away from the goal mouth. Teach them how to position in front of an attacker to encourage the attacker to move into a less attacking area of the field.

The key to any successful defence is communication. In my junior teams I always find my defence much stronger where I have a strong communicator playing in the sweeper or centre back role. Communication starts at training. Whenever you conduct drills at training ensure that you are not the one doing all the talking. Make sure that there is plenty of talk amongst your players. What they do on the training paddock they will take onto the field.

So the four keys to creating a strong defence are teaching your players correct footwork, making sure they understand when to commit to a challenge, helping them understand the danger areas on the field and how to keep attackers away from them, and making sure they communicate with each other. Your defensive drills should encourage development of these four key areas, in order that you will have a strong defence.

When you are learning how to coach soccer, you need to keep in mind that one thing that is guaranteed during a soccer match is pressure.  Whether your players are on offense or defense, they will experience pressure from the other team.  Part of what you need to figure out when learning how to coach soccer is learning how to teach your players to handle that pressure.

<b>Pressure on the Ball Handler</b>

How many times have you seen a young player blindly kick the ball away whenever a defender gets within five feet of them.  They become so panicked when pressure comes that they lose confidence in their own ability, and make a poor decision with the ball.  You will see this scenario played out time and again on soccer fields across the country, even on older teams.  Soccer clubs that consistently field winning teams have learned how to prepare their players to handle pressure on the ball.

To learn how to coach soccer players to handle the defense, you have to start with making sure they are comfortable with basic ball handling skills.  Can your players dribble the ball at various speeds without losing control, or allowing the ball to get too far in front of them?  Can they change directions to the right and the left using the inside and the outside of both feet?  Most importantly, can they control the ball without watching their own feet?

Skilled ball handlers dribble with their head up.  They are constantly looking at what options are available.  They can see any defenders in front of them, and they know where their teammates are.  When the time comes for them to make a pass, they already know who the pass is going to.  There are no last minute, panicked decisions that cause your team to lose the ball.

Once your players become comfortable handling the ball you can begin to practice putting pressure on the ball.  At that point your players should begin to get comfortable shielding the ball.  To shield the ball your players simply maneuvers their body so that it is between the defender and the ball.  By holding their arms away from their body it makes it harder for the defender to reach around to poke the ball away.  When the defender starts to get too close, the ball handler can lean back and use their body to force the defender to back off.  Just like dribbling, the ball handler must learn to do this with their head up.  That way they are able to see an opportunity to dribble to the open field, or to make a good pass to an open teammate.

<b>Pressure on the Defender</b>

Just like a ball handler, your defenders need to get comfortable facing pressure.  It is not unusual for a good offensive team to come with multiple attackers as they try to position themselves for a score.  An inexperienced defense can sometimes fall apart when there are more attackers than there are defenders.

When running drills to train your defenders, make sure to include drills that create mismatches and where the offense out numbers the defense.  This will give your defenders experience in knowing who they need to cover, and who will have to be the keepers responsibility.  Most of all, work on patience with your defenders.  When they are outnumbered, they cannot afford to make silly mistakes.  Make sure they square up, and that they do not lunge for the ball, and get themselves out of position.

A basic concept to remember when you learn how to coach soccer is that game play is much different than running controlled drills.  The more you can create situations in practice that your players are likely to see in a game, the better prepared they will be on game day.  There is a lot of information available to teach you how to coach soccer.  Take advantage of as many resources as you can.

The goalkeeper’s job is certainly the toughest of all soccer players, since whereas a defender, midfielder or attacker can get off with a couple of mistakes every now and then, a goalkeeper’s mistakes are a lot more visible. To complicate things even further, modern goalkeepers have even more attributions than before: they need to coordinate the defense, they sometimes need to act as sweepers and they can fire off lethal counter attacks after a clean save.

For all these to happen of course, a goalkeeper will have to be thoroughly trained using specific soccer goalkeeping drills. Most commonly, such drills focus on soccer goalkeeping training skills such as mobility, flexibility, agility and reflexes rather than physical training. Let’s take a look at some popular soccer goalkeeping drills you could try out with your team.

- Soccer Goalkeeping Drills – 1 Versus 1

This is a very common drill, but nevertheless, it’s very effective since goalkeepers are bound to be caught in a 1 versus 1 situation with an opposing attacker in almost every match. Even more so, at amateur or youth levels, where defenses are less strict than they are with the pros, 1-on-1s are very common for goalkeepers, so you’ll need to train them well.

This soccer goalkeeper drill is simple to execute. Get an attacker around 20-30 yards from the goal and tell him to charge full speed towards the goal, with the ball at his feet and try to score. Your goalie will have to counter him of course. To mix things up a bit, you could have another player passing the ball in front of the attacker, which allows the goalkeeper to take an extra decision as to whether or not it’s a good idea to charge out of the goal, or stay put and wait for the attacker.

- Soccer Goalkeeping Drills – Automatic Fire

Have 8-10 players stand at around 20-30 yards from the goal, each with his own ball. At your signal, the attackers should, one by one, run forward and shoot the ball from a distance you specified beforehand. Your goalkeeper should be under a constant rain of shots, jumping from one post to the other to save the ball. It’s not really that important if he saves them or not, it’s important that he learns how to react quickly and get up from the floor fast and be ready for another shot.

To speed things up a bit, you could have another team of 8-10 players behind the goal, returning the balls back to the firing squad.

- Soccer Goalkeeping Drills – Ab Volley

This is one of the toughest soccer goalkeeping drills, but if done correctly, it’s a very efficient one. Here’s how it goes: your goalie should stay on his bottom, in the same position he would do ab crunches in. You or a teammate will have to throw the ball towards him and while he’s doing ab crunches, he will pass it back to you.

Coordinate your move so that you throw the ball as your goalie is lifting up from the crunch and try not to give him too many breathers. It’s an intense exercise, but results will soon follow, so make sure you encourage him not to quit!

The sport of soccer, known as football to most of the world, has produced some great soccer players over the past years. Perhaps the most famous of all is Pelé, who amazed the world with his incredible ability to maneuver the ball in a way it hadn’t been done before. Pelé retired more than twenty five years ago but he is still a household name on the lips of soccer players and fans around the world. His story of rising from poverty in Brazil to soccer superstar is a source of inspiration for young soccer players everywhere.

Another soccer great is Pavel Nedved. Pavel is well known both in his homeland of the Czech Republic and around the world as one of the youngest soccer players of all time to make a lasting impression. Pavel played for Sparta in the 1990′s and scored many goals for the team from 1992 to 1995.

The world has seen many players who have been the focus of extreme soccer skills, but none so well known as Zinedine Zidane. Zidane was born in Algeria in 1972 and after struggling in school for several years he decided that soccer was his main interest. He was spotted at the age of sixteen by a soccer scout and very quickly found himself in Cannes. Shortly after that Zidane was playing for the French Division, scoring goal after goal and becoming the star of the team.

Today one of the most popular soccer players is David Beckham, who is the star of Great Britain when it comes to the game. At sixteen Beckham was playing for Manchester United team and was already attracting the attention of soccer scouts around the world. Beckham’s incredible talent found him on England’s World Cup Team in 1997. His handsome looks and boyish attitude make him one of Britain’s favorite celebrities.

The world of soccer continues to give us up and coming stars, but none can ever rival the status that the above players have earned.

The question as to whether or not athletes in general and soccer players in particular, should be earning the kind of money they’re earning is more vibrant then ever these days, with clubs paying their players incredible amounts of money each year.

The comparison to other sports is also very relative. A gymnast will train all his life, miss out on a lot of his younger years only to be able to handle a world class performance, but he will still not win as much in his lifetime as one of the highest earning soccer players makes in a year. But that’s the market’s call and there’s no “fair” in sales share.

Getting back to our topic, it’s somewhat difficult to judge exactly how much a player makes simply from his club salary, because many wage details are private, due to obvious reasons. As a club manager, you want to create complete harmony in your team and with all of them knowing that player gets paid twice as much as the rest, won’t help you out with that.

The highest earning soccer players can also be affected by having their salaries publicly available, because at every less than bright performance, they’ll be confronted with a “My God! He really should have played better for the kind of money he’s making” type of exclamation from fans, media and fellow players.

A soccer player’s income also comes from several other sources than simply his wage. For example, the best ever soccer players always made more money from endorsements and ads than their wages; take a look at David Beckham if you don’t believe me.

Other contractual bonuses will also earn them a fair amount. For example, many strikers that are confident in their ability to play regularly and score will have contract bonuses for each goal, assist or for a total number of goals at the end of the season, while agreeing for a lower wage cutout.

However, considering all of the above, it would be logical to say that the highest earning soccer players are also the ones with the highest wages. A club will want to keep a player that brings in incredible amounts of money through endorsements and merchandise sale, so they will offer him a high salary. According to Forbes Magazine, here are the top 3 earners:

Ronaldinho ($29.5 million, salary + endorsement deals) – one of the most famous and nonconformist personas in soccer, Ronaldinho has become the trademark of playing soccer as a game, not as a business. His constant smile while playing and his tricks made him one of the most popular figures today, despite the fact that he’s not as handsome and clean-cut as Beckham or Kaka. Ronaldinho is also widely considered one of the best ever soccer players, despite the fact that he still has many years to play for FC Barcelona, or his future clubs.

David Beckham ($29.1 million, salary + endorsement deals) – no presentation required, Beckham is more than just a soccer players for close to a decade now. His recent move to LA Galaxy from Real Madrid for an impressive transfer fee was well worth it, since American finance analysts agreed that the transfer would soon turn to profit, as Beckham shirt sales and other endorsements would soon earn the club their money back.

Ronaldo ($23.4 million, salary + endorsement deals) – the ex-phenomenon, the chunky Brazilian who impressed the World with his speed and goal-hungry attitude is not at the peak of his game anymore, although his move to Milan seems to have revived him somewhat. Despite his declining form, Ronaldo remains one of the central figures in today’s soccer, as he has an established name and image for over a decade.

I know a lot of people think that working with grown-ups is a lot harder than working with children, because grown-ups already have a formed personality, they have their own experience with the game of soccer and each of them needs to be treated as an individual at all times. For me, soccer drills for young players are a lot harder to apply, because you don’t have a lot of options to take in your relationship with them.

With grown-ups, you can base your coaching on a close relationship with them, on severity, professionalism, honor and several other concepts that might or might not work well with a group (still, all these options might be viable). With kids on the other hand, you’re basically stuck with providing them with a fun environment to play in. You can’t be “hard” on a bunch of kids. Yell at them and they’ll leave crying and not come back to training again. It’s as simple as that, they’re sneaky

So if you’re stuck with fun soccer drills, let’s make sure you make them really fun, so that your team of youngsters can both enjoy them and learn from them at the same time. Before presenting a few fun soccer drills you could try working with, let me just say that you can’t really train “passing”, or “shooting” or a single concept with kids. It’s not fun to shoot for 30 straight minutes, or practice throw-ins or whatnot.

You need to find soccer drills for your young players that combine these raw concepts, so that they practice them, even if unknowingly.

-Soccer Drills for Young Players – One Versus One Dribbles

The kids will love this one, it’s truly a fun soccer drill! Even as small children, when it comes to sports, we’re extremely competitive and with a one versus one dribbling drill, you get to put them head to head, competing.

What they compete for is up to you. For example, you could count a score like this: every time the attacking player manages to dribble the defender, he gets a point, but so does the defender if he manages to stop the dribble. Or, you could simply form two goals out of cones, one for each player and the score would be based on whoever crosses the opposing goal line with the ball at his feet.

-Soccer Drills for Young Players – Unbalanced Drills

Unbalanced drills usually refer to 2 versus 1, 3 versus 2, 4 versus 2 or 5 versus 3 group passing. Let’s say you have your youngsters playing 4 versus 2, which is the most popular version of the unbalanced group passing drill. Four players form a square of around 20-25 feet and two players form a smaller team in the middle of this square. The four players on the outside have to pass the ball from one another, without moving too far away from their corners, while the two in the middle need to get the ball away from them (touch it).

Additionally, you could ask the passing players to only use 2 or a maximum of 3 touches before the pass, but that’s not recommended if the kids you work with are really young. The player who loses the ball will go inside the square, becoming a runner in the team of two and the player who touched the ball earlier will take his place, thus keeping the 4-2 ratio. This fun soccer drill teaches kids several things:

>> it’s important to work as a group, regardless if you’re in the team passing the ball, or in the team that must recover it

>> it’s important to give precise passes, if you want the player to pass the ball back to you

>> sometimes it’s important to use first touch passes

>> it emphasizes on working in a tight space, which will prove invaluable later on

Provided you make these fun soccer drills actually worth the effort, it’s a win win situation: the kids will gladly come to training, knowing that they’ll be having loads of fun with their friends and you also get to teach them the basics of passing, receiving and dribbling. Once they get the hang of these soccer fundamentals, you can pass on to headers, shooting and more complex concepts.

Over the years Kids Soccer has exploded onto the sporting arena. More kids play soccer than any other sport in the world. As coaches and parents a lot of emphasis is placed on training methods and fitness. Without a shadow of a doubt theses areas are important, but the most important aspect of the game, nutrition is overlooked.

Just a quick question before I dive into the importance of Nutrition. Would you drive your car when it was about to run out of petrol? A safe bet would be no. Then why do soccer players attend training or even a match on an empty stomach. If you coach a soccer team or even parent a soccer player, nutrition is crucial to peak performance. It’s not only crucial for performance but it’s a necessity for well being.

Do you know what glycogen is? Kids that are playing soccer have no idea of what glycogen is. Do they really need to know what glycogen is? No they do not! However, coaches and parents should inform their players about the importance of a balanced diet that include high amounts of carbohydrates.

Without going into too much scientific jargon, glycogen is a polysaccharide of glucose which more or less acts like energy storage. Glycogen is found in the muscles, liver and to some extent in the bloodstream. When taking part in a soccer match, the body uses this stored energy to convert it to glucose which is a form of energy. So what happens when the body, in particularly the muscles is lacking glycogen? The body cannot produce enough energy for your muscles to function properly. So inevitably your performance suffers and the risks of soft tissue injuries increase.

So how do we maintain glycogen levels in our muscles? It’s simple, just eat food. Eating foods with high amounts of carbohydrates helps replenish the glycogen levels in your body. So when its time to compete in your soccer match, you are energized and ready to go. You should never starve yourself prior to training or a match because the body will start to utilize its glycogen bank. Make sure to deposit nutritious foods in the glycogen bank at regular intervals. Under no circumstance are you to fast before a big game or drink high energy drinks filled with sugars.

Don’t neglect the importance of soccer nutrition. All the training in the world will be of no benefit unless you feed the motor that drives you. A well balanced diet with the limitations of simple sugars can increase your soccer performance significantly without you even kicking a ball.

If you understand the basic principles of nutrition and glycogen, then you are destined to be in the top half of the soccer players simply by eating correctly.

If you’re looking for ways to improve soccer skills individually, you’ve come to the right place. I know that soccer team practice sometimes just isn’t enough if you want to become great. Just take a look at most of the great soccer players in activity. They always say that they spend a lot of hours off-pitch improving their soccer skills, which makes them so good in matches. But simply training after hours isn’t enough, you need to train intelligently, after a rigorous program.

-Best Ways to Improve Soccer Skills – DVD Programs

There’s a lot of these babies around the Internet these days, so if you’re planning on buying a DVD program for individual soccer practice, make sure it’s a serious author that created it and it’s not some lame compilation of soccer highlights with subtitles saying “Do this and you’ll be great”.

A quality DVD program is a great way to improve soccer skills, because it allows a certain level of interactivity to your learning. It’s not like learning from a TV show, because with DVD’s you can go straight to the chapter that interests you, you can go back and review stuff over and over again until you get the picture.

-Best Ways to Improve Soccer Skills – Skill Focusing

If you notice that there’s a certain area in your game that isn’t on par with your other skills, focus on it to get it on level terms. Having an unbalanced skill set is extremely damaging to your game. For example, you could be very fast and strong, but if you don’t have good ball control, you won’t be able to use your physical skills for anything.

Same goes with players that are extremely technical but very weak on their feet, so improving your soccer skills in a balanced way is best. Also, you could focus on your best skill not your worst one. Are you a good long range shooter? Make that your trademark. Practice long shots over and over again and your teammates will soon know that they need to create space for your shots and you’ll be able to score more often. You could also make a trademark of your heading, your passing, your set pieces and so forth.

-Best Ways to Improve Soccer Skills – Variation

Never allow a particular exercise or drill become boring routine, or you risk entering a stalemate with your soccer skills. Whatever you’re practicing, go for alternative techniques. For example, if you’re practicing dribbling, don’t just focus on a single type of dribble, effective as it may be. You will need to have a varied repertoire of dribbles if you want to stand up to your different adversaries.

In conclusion, you will probably want to combine these three methods, not just use them separately. Use a DVD program to cover the theoretical aspects of your practice and use the other two as practical methods of getting your skills up. You should be gaining an edge in no time!

Mexican soccer was always known for producing quality players and it’s actually quite surprising that their best national team record is reaching the quarter-finals of a World Cup (on two occasions, 1970 and 1986, both of these World Cups being organized by Mexico). However, the Mexican national side has always been a constant presence in final tournaments and it’s regarded as a tough nut to crack, despite their lack of silverware.

Let’s take a short look at some of the players that made Mexico the strong soccer power that it is today.

-Famous Mexican Soccer Players – Antonio Carbajal

Nicknamed “El Cinco Copas”, or “Five Cups”, Antonio Carbajal was the first player to ever participate in 5 World Cups with his national team and has only been equaled in 1998, by German legend Lothar Matthaus. Carbajal played for Mexico in all the 5 World Cups that took place between 1950 and 1966.

-Famous Mexican Soccer Players – Hugo Sanchez

Hugo Sanchez was one of the first Mexico soccer players to play in Europe at the highest level. He was an iconic player for Real Madrid between 1985 and 1992; 7 years in which he scored no less than 253 goals in 283 matches, a goal/match ratio that can hardly be rivaled.

He also played for the Mexico national team on 60 occasions, scoring 29 goals and being an important player in the 1986 World Cup held by Mexico, in which his team managed to equal the quarter-final performance obtained initially in 1970. Hugo Sanchez is currently the manager and coach of the Mexican national squad.

-Famous Mexican Soccer Players – Jared Borgetti

Borgetti was of Italian and Mexican descent and as a striker, he combined the flair and power of Italian soccer with the passion and inventively of Mexican soccer. Although he is still an active soccer player at age 34, he spent most of his time playing in the Mexican league, with 7 years for Santos Laguna, a period of time in which he managed to score close to 200 goals in 300 matches.

But Borgetti’s goalscoring run doesn’t stop here, as he has also managed to come on top of the Mexican national side’s all time score sheet, with 43 goals in 87 matches. Currently, Borgetti is playing for Cruz Azul and although he decided to retire from the Mexican national side for the upcoming World Cup, he stated that he would love to play for his country one last time, during the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament.

-Famous Mexican Soccer Players – Claudio Suarez

Unlike many other Mexican soccer players that get to celebrate New Years with a completely new club on their payroll, Claudio Suarez has only gone through 4 teams throughout his entire career: UNAM Pumas (1989-1996), Chivas de Guadalajara (1996-1999), UANL Tigres (1999-2005) and Chivas USA (2006). He made a strong impression for all of these clubs and many consider him one of the best Mexican defenders to have played for his country.

Although an extraordinary defender is currently contesting this title away from Claudio Suarez, namely Rafael Marquez of Barcelona, there’s one title that will hardly be touched by anyone for a long time: Claudio Suarez currently holds the record for international caps with the Mexican national team, with an amazing 178 appearances.

-Famous Mexican Soccer Players – Rafael Marquez

Rafael Marquez is probably the best-known Mexican soccer player of today, being one of the most important members of Spanish side FC Barcelona. Marquez’ ability to play as a central or right defender as well as a defensive midfielder earned him the aura of a “handyman”, being able to play wherever his coach would need him the most.

However, Marquez has recently steadied down as a central defender, playing on this position for the Mexican national side as well as for FC Barcelona in the last years. Age 28, Rafael Marquez is the captain of the Mexican national squad and is already being considered one of the best players in the country’s history, next to legendary names such as Hugo Sanchez or Claudio Suarez.

Ah, the soccer dribble. The salt and pepper of the game, the move that makes fans go wild, club shirts sell and defenders cry. It’s no wonder that some of the players that are considered today’s best are great dribblers. Just look at the likes of Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Zlatan Ibrahimovici or Lionel Messi. They all built their careers and image as spectacular soccer players on a few dribbling moves. Today, we’ll cover some of the soccer dribbling moves that were branded by these players. Feel free to try and copy them

> Cruyff’s Soccer Dribbling Move

This move, branded by Holland’s superstar, Johan Cruyff is quite easy to reproduce but that doesn’t mean it’s less effective. Actually, it’s one of the most effective moves to perform at the edge of the box, or inside it faking a shot, or even on the wings, faking a cross. I’m sure that many of Cruyff’s former adversaries will acknowledge this move’s effectiveness. Here’s how you do it:

1. Push the ball slightly forward, as if you are preparing to take a kick

2. Plant your base foot (not the one you’re fake kicking with) just a tad ahead of the ball

3. When your fake kicking foot reaches the ball, instead of shooting, cut it under your body, behind your base leg

> Zizou’s 360 Soccer Dribbling Move

One of the soccer dribbling drills that’s probably easiest to get a hold on from a technical point of view. However, knowing how to perform a 360 is not the hard part, knowing WHEN to perform it is. Here’s how to get it done:

1. Push the ball slightly forward, giving your direct opponent the impression he can reach it
2. Extend your left foot and place your sole on top of the ball
3. Push onto the ball, hovering in mid air for a second
4. Place your left foot on the ground and pull the ball under you with the right foot

> Ronaldinho’s Elastico Soccer Dribbling Move

Ronaldinho has some of the best soccer dribbling skills in today’s game and this move that was branded by him only goes to show that. It’s a rather difficult soccer dribbling move to master, but if you can get it done right, it’s a killer. Defenders will rue the day they met an attacker that can pull off a quality Elastico, because it’s very hard to defend yourself from its quick change of direction. Here’s how it goes:

1. With the ball close to you, push it slightly forward and sideways with the outside of your foot
2. Quickly cut it in the opposite direction using the same foot, but with its inside

> Puskas’ V Soccer Dribbling Move

This soccer dribble is called the V-move because you “draw” a V on the ground using the ball. Puskas used it intensely while he was playing for Real Madrid, so this move is usually attributed to him, although a lot of players use it occasionally nowadays. The basic principles behind it:

1. When an opponent is close to you, quickly pull the ball back
2. Place your base foot ahead and sideways of the ball
3. Push the ball in a sideways direction opposite of your base foot, drawing a V with the help of the imaginary line you pulled the ball backwards on

> Ronaldo’s Stepover Soccer Dribbling Move

This one’s slightly funny, because it can be attested with equal rights to two players that are named Ronaldo: Ronaldo Nazario da Lima, the Brazilian striker and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese winger. Both players make intense use of this move, although it’s the Brazilian that was first renowned for it. The stepover is not easy to master, but a few days of soccer dribbling drills should get you going:

1. With the ball close to you, move your leg over the ball, simulating that you would move it sideways

2. Plant your hovering feet next to the ball

3. Now you can either perform a double stepover, using your other leg as explained above, or you could cut the ball with this leg and accelerate past your opponent.